A resounding impact in Idaho!
August 24th, 2007 by alison in: Knock Knock
On August 13, a group of Idahoans had the chance to sit down with one of their senators face-to-face and explain to him why they wanted him to be doing more for peace in northern Uganda and vulnerable children around the world. You can read below the inspiring details of their meeting, submitted by Kami Hill, the group leader.
August 13, 2007: 
OUR MEETING WENT EXCEPTIONALLY WELL!
Our delegation met with Senator Crapo from Idaho.
We went into the conference room and introduced ourselves to Senator Crapo. We said we were meeting with him as delegates from Resolve Uganda who are very passionate about resolution to the situation currently taking place in northern Uganda.
I started by asking the senator what he knew about what is occurring in Uganda, and he stated that other than the material I had sent his aide the day before, his only knowledge came from watching the movie, Blood Diamond. I explained to him how that was my family's first exposure to the conditions in Africa, and that I was skeptical that those horrors were truly still occurring at this present time. I told him that after watching the movie, I immediately went on-line to research what is actually happening, and was appalled with what I found. I told him about finding Invisible Children in my research and what our family was willing to contribute to bring about change for these children and the families in the displacement camps. I explained to him that after seeing the movie, Invisible Children, we decided as a family to sell everything we owned in our very comfortable and quite roomy, 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 2000 sq. ft., house and give 100% of the money from the sale to Invisible Children to help them help the children in Uganda. Then we down-sized to a 400 sq. ft. apartment to be able to donate the excess money from the difference in our cost of living each month to Invisible Children in an attempt to help them continue to help these children. I wanted him to know that we are dedicated and passionate about this issue - and to what extent. I think that he was very surprised that we were willing to go to such lengths, and much more receptive to what we had to say.
I then told the senator that we were meeting with him to implore him to use the power of his office to help us in our efforts to combat the situation occurring in Uganda, by doing 2 very simple and easy things:
#1. Support the ongoing peace negotiations by making one phone call
#2. Co-sponsor and support the Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007.
I explained to him how the United States provides military assistance in one form or another to 8 countries that are involved in the recruitment or use of child soldiers, including Uganda, and that this bill would essentially prohibit military assistance to countries who facilitate the recruitment or use of child soldiers.
I gave him the literature provided by Resolve Uganda (which had what we were asking Senator Crapo to do highlighted in bright yellow). He took a few moments to look it over and then made us a promise (and he actually said the word, promise): He said he promised that he would definitely call the number in the literature to support the peace negotiations. I gave him a copy of Invisible Children (the documentary) and told him that it would illustrate the lives of the children and the fear they endure on a daily basis, and said, "I am literally begging you to take the time from what I know is an extremely busy schedule to watch this film. You cannot ignore the situation after watching this movie. It changed our lives."
John McMahon, one of our delegates, took this opportunity to tell Senator Crapo that he was a retired Army Master Sergeant who fought in the Vietnam War, in which the Vietnamese used child soldiers. He told the senator that no soldier ever wanted to be put in a position where he might have to kill a child before that child was able to kill him. He said that he, personally, never had to kill one of the Vietnamese child soldiers, but he had served with men who had, and it was devastating for them. He really "hit home" with the horrific nature of it being a child our U.S. soldiers were forced to kill. Senator Crapo took the copy of the movie and made us another promise. He said, "I promise you that I will watch it."
Senator Crapo said that based upon the information we had provided regarding the Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007, it sounded as if it were something that he would support, but he would like the time to research more indepthly the full extent of the act, and its co-sponsors to determine if there was anything included in the act that he might not be in support of. We, as a group, encouraged him to do just that by reading the information we were leaving with him and any research he felt necessary that he would have access to that we did not.
All in all, I was very impressed with Senator Crapo and his reception of, and response to, our delegation. He seemed sincerely concerned and willing to do what he could to bring resolution to the two main issues that we discussed with him. He appeared to be a man of honesty and integrity and I consider myself fortunate to have met with him to discuss the issues that are of the utmost importance to Resolve Uganda and me and my family - on what has become a very personal level.
Many thanks to Resolve Uganda for providing us with this opportunity to make everything that we have sacrificed so much for have a resounding impact and create real change for the citizens of northern Uganda! May God bless your mission!